Gandhinagar, Oct 4 (IANS): The Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation elections, held on Sunday, saw over 56 per cent turnout, against 2016's 52.02 per cent, while being peaceful with no untoward incident reported from anywhere.
The polls were three-pronged with the entry of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), to take on traditional rivals - the BJP and the Congress.
A total of 162 candidates were in the fray for 44 councillors' posts across 11 wards.
Out of total of 2,81,897 voters, 1,58,354 - 86,046 males and 72,308 females - cast their vote at 284 polling booths, out of which four were marked as extremely sensitive, and 144 as sensitive.
The least polling was registered in the Panchdev temple ward in the heart of the city, at 37.41 per cent and maximum at Kolawada-Vavol ward, at 66.93 per cent.
"We have not received a single complaint from anywhere and everywhere where the elections were conducted, it was carried out peacefully. We only had to replace one EVM machine in Bhanvad, which was carried out quickly," State Election Commissioner Sanjay Prasad told IANS.
After delimitation, some areas of adjoining villages have been added into the Municipal Corporation area. A majority of the wards comprise rural areas.
Both the BJP and Congress had fielded 44 candidates, while 40 candidates were from AAP, 14 from the Bahujan Samaj Party, 2 from the Nationalist Congress Party, 6 from other parties and 11 independent candidates.
Counting of the votes will take place on October 5. If required, re-polling for a particular seat may be held on October 4.
With Gandhinagar the state capital and a significant number of residents are government employees, the municipal corporation elections assume a special significance. Besides that, this is the first major election after Bhupendra Patel took charge as Chief Minister.
The GMC elections also hold significance as this is the last big elections before Assembly polls scheduled in December 2022. The results of this elections can give a glimpse of public response towards the Congress and also the new kid on the block AAP, as the state has been for the BJP since the past two and a half decades.
In the 2016 elections, the BJP and Congress had both won 16 seats each, out of the then total 32 seats.
However, within days, two Congress councillors defected to the BJP, paving the way for the saffron party to form the body in the GMC. Pravin Patel - one of the defectors - was then elected Mayor.
The GMC polls were earlier schceduled for April 10, 2021, but were postponed due to the pandemic.
Besides this, by-elections were also held for 2 seats of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and one seat of the Jamnagar Municipal Corporation, for which 10 candidates were in fray. Of these, three each were from BJP, and Congress, one from NCP, two from AAP and 1 from another party.
The BJP candidates were already declared unopposed winners on 4 seats of ward number 3 in Thara and on 2 seats of ward number 8 of Okha municipality.
A total of 205 candidates were in fray for 78 seats in Thara, Okha and Bhanvad, of which 78 were from the BJP, 72 from the Congress, 52 from the AAP and 3 independents.
Against 8 seats left empty in various district panchayats, there are 24 candidates in the race.